The 2017 World Series of Poker Main Event final table is set and — for the first time in over a decade — the winner will be decided in just a few days time.
The so-called November Nine, which featured a 3+ month delay between the 10th elimination and the final table, was finally shuttered by the WSOP this year and replaced with a modest two-day break.
That means media will have just two days to highlight the final nine players before they play to a winner.

Johnny Moss (Left) Photo: UNLV Special Collections via Wikipedia Commons
“Legend” - a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated, Merriam Webster Dictionary
Legend, icon, hero – all these are terms used way too often and too easily today. But Johnny Moss -- the first superstar of poker, the “Eye in the Sky” -- was all that and more.
Among his many legendary feats?
Moss somehow came first AND second in the first WSOP. And he played the most famous, 5-month long heads-up match ever played.
Or did he?

42 years after winning his first bracelet, Billy Baxter is still the uncrowned king of lowball poker.
He's also, technically, the first "Robin Hood of Poker."
In case you were thinking, “but I always thought the Robin Hood of Poker is Barry Greenstein," it is. But that’s a different story.
And Billy Baxter was first.

The World Series of Poker parking lot is a gargantuan expanse that’s littered with some of the most expensive (and cheapest) cars that you can purchase.
It makes sense considering winning a large tournament at the WSOP should be able to get you a decently equipped BMW or Mercedes at the very least.
You’ll need something to haul all that cash around, right?
We’re going to give you a peek at some of the cars that routinely make appearances in the VIP lot at the World Series of Poker.

If this is your first year attending the World Series of Poker you might not realize the event looked dramatically different just one year ago.
Yes, there is still a seemingly endless sea of poker tables but the long-running series has actually undergone its most dramatic overhaul since introducing the gargantuan Pavilion Room in many years ago.
The Amazon Room, which has long been the crown jewel of the WSOP with multiple feature tables and the ESPN mothership, is now just another room of poker tables.
On the other hand the Pavilion Room has been renovated to include a high-stakes cash game area and lounge that’s sponsored by European poker giant King’s Casino.
It’s a whole new world for the WSOP.

The November Nine experiment is over.
Earlier this month the WSOP announced that after nine years it was ditching the November Nine concept to play out the final table with a more reasonable two-day break.
Some would argue the November Nine lasted a little too long but it has given us some interesting stories over the years.
In total 80 players competed in the three-month delayed Sit & Go (that’s Mark Newhouse twice, natch) winning tens of millions.
For some players their November Nine experience was just a stepping stone to a bigger poker career while others were basically never heard from again.
We’re going to take a look at the most successful November Niners over its nine-year existance and what they accomplished when you take away their big Main Event score.

Really good poker players are able to fold even very strong holdings. And when they’re right, they always look like stars.
When they're wrong, though ... they don’t make you look that smart.
As our Video of the Week this week shows, even inexperienced players shouldn't give up that easily.

You can’t beat the drama that surrounds the WSOP Main Event final table bubble.
It’s arguably the single biggest bubble in poker with nine lucky players becoming millionaires, instant-fame and numerous sponsorship opportunities while one unlucky player becomes a minor footnote in poker.
The stands are generally packed with friends, family and fans and — for one day at least — people are really, really interested in watching people play poker.

Before tonight when Michael Ruane joined the elite halls of 2016 WSOP November Nine, his biggest claim to poker fame was getting arrested flying back from the PCA in the Bahamas.
That's ancient history now as Ruane cemented his spot in poker history in a much more positive way by making the final nine of the World Series of Poker Main Event.

With Belgium's burgeoning poker scene and a stellar track record at the WSOP for Belgian players, despite its tiny population, it's no surprise to have another Belgian member of the November Nine this year.
After the exhilarating journey of 72-year-old Pierre Neuville last year, this year it's longtime poker industry pro Kenny Hallaert's turn.

When you're leading the World Series of Poker Main Event at the end of Day 6, with 80 players to go, it must be an exhilarating feeling.
Staring down another 71 eliminations before the final table is set, though, is a daunting task. But that's exactly what poker pro Jerry Wong managed to pull off.

With just $52,986 in career live earnings and only one WSOP cash - for less than the $10k buy-in to the Main Event - Las Vegas resident Qui Nguyen doesn't immediately stand out as a threat at the 2016 WSOP Main Event final table.
Given that those cashes date back to 2003, though, he might have a bit more up his sleeve than expected.

If there's a poker player who can say he's almost literally been working most of his life for this moment, it's Gordon Vayo.
The now San Francisco-based Vayo, originally from Bloomington, Illinois, started his poker journey at 16, playing tournaments under the name "holla@yoboy" on PokerStars.Ten years later he's at the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event.

If there's a poker pro in the November Nine that has the support of the majority of the professional poker world, it's Cliff Josephy.
A legendary backer along with Eric "Sheets" Haber," the man known as JohnnyBax literally put hundreds of poker players in the game thanks to the stable of horses they ran during the last half of the 2000s.
Now, it's his turn to taste tournament glory.

Spaniard Fernando Pons may be the shortest stack at the 2016 WSOP Main Event final table but he’s already earned one hell of a return on his investment.
Pons qualified for the 2016 WSOP Main Event through a €30 satellite on 888poker. He’s already guaranteed at least $1m just for making the final table so it’s safe to say he’s happy with how things have gone in the tournament.
Incredibly, the 2016 WSOP Main Event was the first time that Pons had ever played a WSOP event.

On the eve of the 2015 WSOP Main Event debuting on ESPN, who better to showcase than the poker player most defined by World Series of Poker success?
Love him or hate him when Phil Hellmuth is on television - and especially during the WSOP - you're going to watch him play poker.

It was the river card heard ‘round the poker world.
A fateful queen of hearts completed a straight for the unheralded Joe McKeehen and ended poker icon Daniel Negreanu’s incredible run in the 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Negreanu, who missed making the November Nine by just two eliminations, collapsed to the floor out of shock.
ESPN, Caesars, poker media members and poker fans everywhere were left wondering what might have been.
It was a one-of-a-kind journey for the game’s most popular player (Phil Ivey might have an argument in 2009).
This year the buzz around the tournament was taken to another level and, at long last, it looked like the November Nine concept was going to pay off in spades.
It wasn’t to be.
PokerListings was on hand every second of the World Series of Poker Main Event playdown and had our camera lenses pointed directly at Negreanu for the majority of the day.
Here’s a collection of photos from one of the most memorable days in the history of the WSOP.
Photos by Arthur Crowson, Matthew Showell and Alcanthang.

Las Vegas is pretty far from Brooklyn but you wouldn’t know it from taking a quick trip around the tournament floor of the 2015 World Series of Poker.
A plaid platoon of bearded hipster mountain men has taken over the Rio All-Suite Hotel in Las Vegas.
Many of these pros are millionaires but you wouldn’t know it from their rugged beards and sometimes unkempt hair. All that’s missing is a vintage splitting axe slung over their shoulder.
Case in point: Matthew Ashton, Andrew Lichtenberger and Steve O’Dwyer have nearly $20 million in combined lifetime live tournament winnings but wouldn’t look out of place in a hotel in Thailand.
It’s pretty much the polar opposite of the baller lifestyle image that poker players tried to cultivate in the mid-2000s.
You gotta hand it to poker players, when they do something they give it 100%.
Here’s a photo gallery of the best beards straight from the 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event. FYI: This is a $10,000 buy-in poker tournament:

Phil Ivey has been noticeably absent from the 2015 World Series of Poker.
Not many people were surprised when Ivey didn’t show up the first few days, as he’s been known to show up late.
But as championship event after championship event went by Iveyless, concern started to grow.

The World Series of Poker has grown exponentially throughout the years. Not only have prize pools and the number of players increased, but there's also been a surge in the number of poker variants.
These players offer some suggestions of their own.

To most, spending five figures on a watch is unthinkable but for some high-stakes poker professionals it's an investment they can wear on their wrist.
Noah Schwartz, Bryn Kenney, Eugene Katchalov, Doug Polk and John Racener have combined live tournament earnings of $32 million. The watches they were wearing when we spoke to them have a combined value of $116,000.
We wanted to find out what kind of watches they were and why these pros love them.
The answers were interesting and the price tags were astonishing.

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